The present invention is related to an apparatus for simultaneously embossing and cutting patterns from a web of material, such as paper. More particularly, the present invention is directly to a two-piece die set having mating male and female portions that can be used in a flat bed press.
Cutting the outline of a shape into a web of material using a razor blade die on a flat bed press is known as disclosed in, for example, U.S. Patent Application Publication Number U.S. 2002/0152868. It is also well-known to cut of a web of material to form various patterns, for example, the opening on a window envelope, using a rotary press.
Further, it is known to make an impression or to emboss a pattern into a web of material, such as paper, using a two-piece die having mating male and female design portions that are pressed together firmly with the paper between them to form the desired impression, as disclosed, for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,181,464.
In many cases, after a pattern is embossed on a sheet of paper, the only portion of the paper of any interest or use to its creator is the portion having the embossed pattern on it. In this case, and in a second operation, the user will cut out the embossed portion from the sheet of paper. When many embossed patterns are involved, cutting each from a sheet of paper individually, or from many sheets of paper individually, is time-consuming, tedious, and invariably leads to cutout shapes of different sizes when performed manually. If the cutout shapes are formed prior to embossing, they typically will not be held in register by the embossing dies. If the cutout shapes are formed after embossing, the cutout shapes may not be in register with the embossed patterns. In any event, a second and demanding step is involved to achieve embossed patterns that are cut out from a sheet of material.
Therefore, it is desirable to cut out a shape of a perimeter around an embossed design during the actual pressing of the embossed design, and preferably simultaneously. Further, it is desirable to mass-produce such dies economically and quickly, indicating that a photochemically etched die would be preferable to a machine cut die.
Therefore, a need exists for a die that will simultaneously emboss a pattern on a portion of a web of material and cut out a perimeter shape around the embossed pattern; that maintains accurate register of the male and female portions of the die; and that can be mass-produced using photochemical etching; and that is easy to use.